Friday, July 31, 2009

I had emailed her late, late, late Tuesday night with the news and then she phoned me Wednesday afternoon to tell me they got a referral too!!! When she phoned us, we were with our social worker going over Ade's file and signing our acceptance of his referral.

Pretty much didn't hear anything after that! :)

We are with the same agency so the chance we might get to travel together to bring our wee babies home is pretty good!

Referral Day Tuesday, July 28, 2009!First I need to say that this week has been a whirlwind...I think we are still in shock but it is wearing off and we have a baby boy!!!!!!!! Can you believe it!!!!!Yvan and I work together at a business he started 10 years ago and this week has been our busiest week ever I think work wise which is why it has taken me so long to post this..between work and staring at wee baby boy's photos...well...you get what I am saying.Tuesday right after work we were supposed to see our physiotherapist for a strength training session together but I was so exhausted that I decided to re-schedule but Yvan went anyways. While we were at the office I said to our receptionist (who is new) that if we got a phone call from our social worker this week to be sure to transfer her to my cell immediately. I told her this because I knew referrals where in and was hoping beyond hope we were in the batch. Oh and I wanted to be the one who got "The Call" :)So, Yvan went to training and I went to the post office to pick up a parcel that turned out to be from this lovely lady. What timing!!!!!!!!!!!!!When I got home I was so nervy and jumpy because I was anticipating the phone ringing for us this week...so I said to myself "Self, don't get your hopes up that they called today but just check the call display before you listen to messages."So, I hit the scroll button and low and behold the call display said "Govt of Sask" which I have been told it says when you get "The Call". I just about peed my pants.....I pressed the message button and heard "you have two new messages" but the first message was someone else and I pressed skip (sorry to whoever it was if I haven't called you back yet) and the second message was from our social worker and I heard:

"Hi Rana and Yvan, I have good news for you"...well I screeched really loud (our tenants in the basement were probably WTF?) and then proceeded running around the house looking for the phone.Once I found it I immediately phoned Yvan but didn't get and answer ARGH! so then I tried calling our social worker and she was still in the office..it was 5:30 and she was still working....she said "Congratulations you have a 6 month old baby boy!!!!"

All I heard after that was something very much like the teacher on Charlie Brown - "Maw, maw, maw....and then she said "I will email you his file!!!!!!!!!!!"

I knew I couldn't open this up without Yvan and I wanted to open it up really badly but I also wanted to surprise him so I here is what I did....yes, I really did this! I was actually quite calm the whole time I was talking to her....who would have thought...anyways I:

Drove to the dollar store..well actually I was going to go to Staples first and then I thought "no the dollar store is better, it will have everything I need".

I whipped thru that store grabbing bristle board, glue, anything that said "It's a boy" on it and had them do up some helium balloons....then I drove like a mad woman and home to get ready for when Yvan got home.

I made a giant sign ( the one we are holding in our referral announcement photo) and put the the balloons in front of the garage door...then I sat on our back deck stairs with my giant sign waiting for him to come home.

Oh ya, first I called the physio's office and told Tenille (receptionist) to tell Yvan to come home immediately because it was an emergency....Yvan called me 30 seconds later concerned and I said "You have to come home right now, don't stop at work, I will tell you everything when you get here!"

Yvan will tell you I said this very calmly and in a very neutral sounding voice...he said he thought:

1. Someone died 2. I was leaving him (?) 3. We got out referral

But he thought 1 and 2 were better chances of happening then our referral! Ha!

Here is the sign I made for him:

Balloons in front of the garage door

Yvan arriving home....

When he looked up at me on the deck and saw me holding the sign he started crying....which in turn got me bawling!!! We just stood crying and hugging!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

About to see our wee son's face for the first time!

We went and told Yvan's parents and sister - we had to give Yvan's dad and story about how we had to show him something at his condo they were renting because Yvan's mom and sister were there cleaning it so they could rent it....we got them all out on the balcony and I pulled the big sign out from the vehicle and they all started crying and screaming....Yvan's sister was hilarious....if you live in a 10 block radius of the condo you heard her screaming and Yvan's mom was crying and his dad was hugging us!!!! :)

Their new tenant happened to be at the condo getting some stuff organized for her move and she just happens to be an old friend from a way back....so she got to be part of our referral day too!

Thanks A! You are hilarious!

Then we went home and went to next door to Yvan's brother's house (yes, he lives next door to us) and called him from the back yard and told him to come outside.

He shed some happy tears too!!!!!

Then we went inside our house and called my mom...she lives 2 provinces away.

I tried her at home, on her cell, at my Auntie's house...turns out they went camping and so I called her on my Auntie's cell phone and asked for momma!!!

We yelled "Hi Grandma!" and she said "What" and we said "It's a boy" and she said "Really!!!!" and proceeded to cry....and we in turned cried too!!!!!!!!!!!!

I called my adoption peeps right away - Ricki, Rhonda, Shannon, Cheryl, Sandi and Julie (Uh, Julie made me do a full on ugly cry because she was so emotional!!!)

And emailed my ladies-in-waiting - Hazel, Carolyn and Ramona. Our kids are all in the CAFAC foster home together right now!

Without all of these ladies I wouldn't have made it thru this wait....Yvan says thank you too ;)

Cheryl came over as soon as she could to congratulate us and take a peek at our wee baby boy!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Monday, July 20, 2009

I can almost say for certain it was people "googling" the news from last week that brought so many hits to our site...it peaked at around 388 visits on Tuesday...which is the most we have ever had.

Most of the 'visitors' didn't stay very long and those who did stay around for a time obviously where here to read our story which is why we started this blog in the first place. So, read away!

I have to say that we have been very lucky to date as we haven't (knock, knock) had any comments that were negative or out of line which is good.

We also haven't had any weird, middle-of-the-night phone calls or people just randomly showing up at our house because they saw our blog...this is also good. (Don't go getting any ideas Hal Gorger!)

I struggled a lot last week with whether or not I would keep on with this blog....it seemed to me that we were in a real catch 22.

When we first started this blog we wanted to be able to post information for our friends and family so they could share in our journey to our family with us.

Along the way it came to be a collection of thoughts and feelings for us to give to our child as a keepsake of where our heads and hearts were at as made our way to them.

It also became a much needed link to other parents who are on the same journey as us...we have made some unbelievable friends thru our blogging adventures. Some we have gotten to know very well, some we have flown to meet in person, others we haven't met yet but will one day!

We have friends from both agencies...and my catch 22 was how do we continue on with our blog knowing our stories and hopefully our eventual referral will hurt others who have gone thru so much pain and sadness in the last week or so.

I told Yvan I wasn't sure I would be able to post our referral news because I don't want to hurt anyone.

And so I thought maybe we would wind down this blog....but then I thought of why we started this in the first place...and have decided to keep going!

I hope people will still follow and will celebrate along with us when/if we get "The Call".

And to those of you who can't follow anymore because it is just to hard...I completely understand. I would feel the same if I was in your place....know that we think of each and every one of you daily!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

He is Xavier Rudd and he put on one of the best musical shows I have ever seen in my life!

I know I am not managing your expectations very well...but honestly...find out if he is playing in your area....get tickets (the $30 bucks is well worth it!) put on your dancin' shoes...make your way to the venue.........get ready to groove all night long!

He plays the steel guitar, the drums, the harmonica, the little tinkly things, but most importanly the didgeridoo!!!

The Didgeridoo!!!!!!!

He had the crowd on their feet from the moment he walked out on stage.